Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Online Free

opposite side of the street while trying not to let on about it. He slid his arm around her shoulders and hustled her over to the elm, where Shayla played with an umbrella as tall as she was. Colleen snuck a glance back over her shoulder. The mailbox stood alone and innocuous. Now that she had Jeremy beside her, the whole episode seemed like some weird hallucination. Had she even seen or heard anyone at all?
    Jeremy, his hand firmly clasped around Shayla’s, stayed at her back while Colleen went in to gather up her sweater and purse. They lingered until Norelle got into her car and drove safely away. Outside once again, both of them carefully surveyed the street. Jeremy handed Colleen the umbrella and picked up Shayla.
    “Looks like Annie’s not here yet,” he said. “Wait, or start walking?”
    Colleen stole a look at the mailbox. The horrible sense of surveillance had edged in again. “Let’s start walking,” she said, and was relieved when he nodded. He also shot a look toward the mailbox, but didn’t say anything.
    He set a brutal pace, almost a trot. Adrenaline helped her keep up. If she’d thought leaving the school, and the mailbox, behind would ease her distress, she quickly learned otherwise. The sense of being watched progressed to one of being followed. Stalked, like prey. She held the umbrella like a weapon. Jeremy smiled at her and made pithy small talk, but Colleen didn’t miss how warily his eyes scanned the streets or how firmly he held on to Shayla.
    They’d gone barely a block and a half when a navy SUV abruptly swung up to the curb beside them. The window lowered. Colleen hefted the umbrella, tensed for scarlet eyes. Mental coercion or not, nobody was getting anywhere near Shayla without the fight of their lives.
    “Hey, good-looking,” a woman’s voice said from within. “Want a lift?”
    Jeremy’s whole lanky body relaxed. “Hey, Annie,” he said, and Shayla squealed, “Hi, Mommy.”
    Colleen lowered the umbrella. Her past encounters with Dr. Annie Stanton had been brief but pleasant. The woman always left a friendly glow in her wake. She smiled at them now while she opened the passenger door. “Hop in, kiddos. That pot roast won’t stay warm forever.”
    “’Tatoes?” Shayla asked hopefully as Jeremy set her in the back seat. Colleen clambered into the front, beside Annie. With everyone safely strapped in, Annie peeled out and took off at a speed Colleen considered excessive. Was Dr. Stanton also scanning the street? Colleen decided she must be paranoid.
    The sense of being followed had trickled down to a whisper by the time Annie pulled into her driveway. Once inside their house, it shut off completely. Colleen blew out a sigh of relief and let the homey cheeriness of the house wash her clean of that awful, stifling anxiety. She touched her fingertips to her forehead. They came away dampened with sweat.
    Shayla tagged after Annie into the kitchen, but Jeremy stayed by her side. “Are you all right?”
    “I am now.” She smiled up into his eyes. She’d take their stormy darkness over red any day of the year. “I feel like I had a panic attack or something. Looks like it’s over. Is there some place I could freshen up?”
    “Of course. Dinner won’t be for at least ten minutes. There’s a bathroom up the hall there, to your right.”
    A brisk splash of cold water on her face, Colleen decided, would do her a world of good. So would a slug of whiskey, but that would have to wait. She scurried up the short hallway to the bathroom before post-panic shakes could hit. At the doorway, she glanced back. Jeremy had pulled out a cell phone and spoke into it in low tones that didn’t carry as far as her ears. He glanced up and caught her eyes on him. Colleen ducked into the bathroom.
    With the door between her and all prying eyes, Colleen took a firm grip on the edge of the sink and a series of deep, cleansing breaths. Voices didn’t just sprout in people’s heads unless they were